Yu-Gi-Oh! CGC Academy
by Tophersandwich
Summary: In a world dedicated to Duel Monsters, acadamies for the very purpose of training the next generation of the very best duelists the world can offer, a trio of freshman at the Newspring Duel Academy find themselves in a brand new world of Dueling among peers and more.
1. Chapter 1

1: Enter the General of the Ice Barrier

Duel Monsters, a card game that has spread the world over. Dueling has become a part of every child's life nowadays. Organizations have sprung up to fund special schools for students to attend and train to be part of the pro dueling circuit. One particular academy happened to be holding entrance exams on this very day. Every single applicant was on time, too. Well, except for one particular duelist.

_Today of all days for me to be running late, are you kidding me!? _This boy was running through the streets, attempting to get to the local dueling stadium where the exams were being held. Quickly he ran in, finding two men at the receptionist counter. They were finishing cleaning up a pile of papers that were scattered around the table when the boy reached them.

"Wait!" He cried and slammed his hands down on the table. The two men looked at him with raised brows and dismissively returned to their papers. "Exam student number 148: Christopher. Here to take my exam!" He panted, out of breath. One of the men paused and dug through his papers, pulling one out. The paper showed the white boy with short brown hair before them.

"Hrm, you're late." He said and handed the boy his papers. "Enter the stadium and wait for your name to be called." Christopher nodded and ran in, following the signs and proceeding into the stands. Looking down he saw students dueling instructors for their own spot in the school. Christopher took a seat near the entrance and watched the duels unfold. One of the duelists he'd just seen play was climbing up the stairs and invited himself to sit one row of seats below Christopher.

"You have your duel yet?" He asked. Christopher shook his head. The boy sighed and looked down at the ground. "I was hoping someone could tell me if the test was meant to be that hard."

Christopher looked thoughtful for a second before he slapped the boy on the back. "Don't worry about it, it's already over, so what does worrying even change!" The young duelist seemed to perk up a bit at the comment. "The name's Topher, what's yours?"

"Alex, but just call me Crag. Nice to meetcha."

"Duelist number 148, please report to the duel arena for your examination." A man's voice rang out from the PA system overhead. Topher got up and walked downstairs.

The boy cupped his hands together and called out "Hey good luck out there!" Topher gave him a thumbs-up and headed down to the arena.

A troupe of men and woman that were sat together watched on earnestly over the day, keeping a careful look and judging their assigned entrants. Leading the operation was a formidable man sitting in the center, Professor Yuhai, leader of the Ra Yellow dorm and in charge of the duel examinations. Professor Yuhai and the others were discussing dorm assignments based off of both performance and the written exam scores when one man interrupted the process by handing him a paper.

"What is this?" He asked, his strict demeanor piercing through with only two words.

"A candidate has shown up for examination at the last minute, sir." Yuhai took the paper and quickly read it over.

"He clearly doesn't have respect for people's time, but his written test results were ok. Very well, Mathew, please duel our late addition." He waved away to a tall young man with long blonde hair in a white coat with blue trim sitting a row above him and he stepped out.

"Wait. Which deck shall you use for the duel?" Yuhai asked. Mathew looked down at a deck case labeled "Stupid Options". He continued walking down towards the duel zone his opponent was waiting in.

"I have it under control."

Topher entered the duel arena and took his place on one of the side of the field. Everyone was now watching him, as he was now the last one taking his dueling exam. A man dressed in an official Obelisk blue uniform stepped into the arena.

"Greetings, I am Mr. Green, your duel proctor for this test. I have a variety of decks that I can use, and I'll…"

"Wait, hold up. You're Mr. Green? And here I was expecting Colonel Mustard or Mr. Plum to be my duel proctor." Topher smirked at his little joke but Mr. Green hardly seemed amused.

"Well I was going to let you choose which deck I would use on you but I think this works just as well." Both duelists inserted their decks into their duel disks, lighting up into action.

"LET'S DUEL!" They exclaimed, drawing out five cards from their deck each.

"I'll go first, it's much more important to see how a duelist responds than it is to see how they initiate." Mr. Green took his draw phase, drawing one card and looked over his hand for only a second. "Not bad at all!"

"I'll start by playing the Field Spell, Fortissimo the Mobile Fortress!" The hologram projectors of the duel disk whirred into action, as a large blue-silver room with thick cords running into blinking power gauges and open hexagonal shoots covering walls that sprang up from the ground around them. "With this field spell, I'm allowed to special summon one 'Meklord Army' card from my hand once per turn."

"Meklords? Just what kind of cards are those?" Topher hardly seemed worried about dueling cards he didn't even know, rather, he looked like he could explode any second.

"Hold your tongue for a moment and I'll begin the lesson." Mr. Green quipped. "Now first I normal summon Meklord Army of Skiel in attack mode (**1200**/1000). And using the effect of Fortissimo, I'm allowed to special summon another of these monsters, so I'll choose the Army of Granel in my hand (**1600**/1200)! Now I'll get to show you exactly how these monsters work. For every other 'Meklord Army' monster on the field, Granel here raises his attack points by 100, and Skiel does the same thing and raises its attack by 200, making them 1700 and 1400 attack points respectively. Next, I'll activate two copies of the same spell card, Boon of the Meklord, allowing me to draw two cards as long as the only monsters face up on the field are two 'Meklord' monsters. Next I'll set three cards face down and end my turn."

Mr. Green looked over his field and seemed very satisfied. "Did you follow all of that?"

"Oh yeah, these machines look really cool! I can't wait to see everything they have to offer." Topher stood strong against the beasts brought out and took his own draw now that it was his turn. "If all you guys over at the academy duel like you do, I've definitely gotta make it in."

_Call of the Haunted, Medallion of the Ice Barrier, Compulsory Evacuation Device, General Grunard, Surface and… Defender of the Ice Barrier. Perfect, I know just what to do with this hand. _"I'll start off this duel by activating Medallion of the Ice Barrier, this allows me to add any one 'Ice Barrier' monster from my deck to my hand, and the one I'll be choosing is the Strategist of the Ice Barrier."

"Well I certainly hope you'll be able to come up with some strategy to get over my monsters, otherwise this will be a short duel." The proctor commented dismissively.

"Don't count me out yet, Mr. Green. The turn's hardly over, and it'll keep moving with the same card I just drew, the Strategist of the Ice Barrier in attack mode (**1600**/1600). Next, I'll activate its special effect, which lets me discard one 'Ice Barrier' monster from my hand to draw one more card from my deck." _And here's Prior, alright, this'll come in handy later._

"Next, I'll set throw two cards face down and have my Strategist attack your Army Skiel! Attack with Cold Calculations!" The Strategist unfurled a scroll and a beam of light blasted from it, piercing the blue jet-like machine, dealing 200 points of damage, but Mr. Green hardly seemed fazed.

"Entrant, allow me to inform you that if I leave an opening, it's only to be filled up by another play. I activate Army of Skiel's effect, when this card is destroyed by battle, I'm allowed to special summon any one Meklord Army monster, and I'll choose Meklord Army of Wisel in attack mode. (**1800**/0)"

"Dang, his field has only gotten better now…"

"You see now what I mean? My turn, draw! Hm, I'll start by summoning Ally of Justice Thousand Arms in attack mode (**1700**/0). But this thing won't be around for long, because I'll be battling your monster, and if it's a non-light monster, this card will be destroyed!"

"Huh, but what does destroying your own monster do for you?" Topher took a step back. After all, it's pretty common knowledge that any time you destroy your own monsters, it leads to powerful cards.

"You see, you're about to meet the Emperor of the armies you've been fighting. When one face-up monster is destroyed on my side of the field, I can special summon this! Come forth, Meklord Emperor Granel!" A gust of wind blew towards both players on the field, causing Topher to brace himself.

"This proud Emperor's attack and defense points are equal to half of my life points (3800 lp, **1900**/1900). Now go, Emperor, attack that Strategist and lead forth your armies with Infinity Stream!" The large orange robot that had been summoned surged its mechanized fist forth, only to be stopped suddenly. "What's this?"

"A trap, Compulsory Evacuation Device, to be precise. This card allows me to return any one card on the field back to the owner's hand, and I'm choosing your Emperor." A stream of light overwhelmed the card and it was launched back into Mr. Green's hand.

"Smart move, picking the Emperor, entrant, but I'm afraid that doesn't stop my Army of Wisel from beating down that strategist." The Strategist exploded as a roundhouse kick from Army of Wisel launched the card back, and in turn, Topher recoiled. "Now that you're wide open, attack, Army of Granel!"

"Not so fast, I still have another face down," cried Topher. "Activate now, Call of the Haunted. A good general never leaves his units unavenged or undefended, and this restless General will be doing just that, come back, General Grunard! (**2800**/1000)"

"Looks like you've avoided failure this turn, but that won't last long. Remember, I've still got three face downs on my field and these two monsters aren't going anywhere with the plays you've been making." _A shame I can't use my extra deck in this duel as a proctor, it'd make quick work of him… but I have to admit, this kid's getting me excited. I want to see what else these Ice Barriers of his can pull out. _"Your move, duelist."

"Ha, I guess I'll just have to step up my game then. Draw!" _What can I use to get around all of this… a head on attack would be a terrible idea. My hand now is Defender, Surface, and Dai-Sojo. Oh, of course! _"I'll start of this turn by summing out Defender of the Ice barrier in attack mode. This loyal guard dog won't be around for long though, because I'll be using General Grunard's special ability to be able to normal summon another Ice Barrier monster from my once per turn. I'll tribute Defender in order to summon Dai-Sojo of the Ice Barrier. Dai-Sojo here stops any 'Ice Barrier' monsters on the field from being destroyed by spells or traps."

"Well that puts a damper on my plans then…" Mr. Green commented, relaxing his stance, seemingly unable to do anything now.

"That's not all, teach, I'm going to activate the spell card Surface. An attack can come from anywhere, even under water. This card lets me bring back the Defender (200/**1600**) in my graveyard, making sure you can't even attack either. The path is clear, General, surge forth with your Piercing Freeze attack!" The General materialized a spear made of ice into his hands and lampooned the enemy Army Granel. The holographic shards of the now blown up and pierced machine blasted back to Mr. Green, losing 1100 life points and his card.

"This is the legendary Ice Barrier in action, a wall unsurpassable, built with the morale and might of the Ice Barrier army; let's see you get over this one!" Topher's eyes practically shone with pride at the play, being able to show off his plays with the entire crowd watching him.

"Hehe, this is all very impressive, entrant. But I'm afraid all walls were meant to be broken. It's my turn, but you may as well surrender right now. Draw! I'll go ahead and activate the spell card in my hand, Iron Call! As long as I have a face-up machine monster on the field, I can target a level 4 or lower monster in the grave and special summon it. I'll be summoning back Army of Granel in defense mode (1600/**1200**)." A red sound wave cut into the floor beneath them and Army of Granel burst out, the floor quickly repairing itself.

"And next, I'll activate one of my face downs, Chaos Infinity." A red infinity symbol appeared above all defense position monsters on the field, and they all stood themselves up, ready to fight instead now. "Surprised? You should be, because this card turns all defense position monsters on the field into Attack Position and then I'm allowed to special summon another Meklord Monster. I'll be choosing a second Army of Wisel (now **2000**/0) to take to the field."

"Is this going somewhere? Because while Defender is on the field, you know you can't attack with monsters that have more attack than its defense, which is 1600." Topher reminded the proctor with a little smirk.

"Oh don't worry, I haven't forgotten the effects that make up your weak wall. It all starts with this, the Book of Moon!" A blue bound book appeared over the Defender and shut on him, turning him to face-down defense mode.

"This card may not destroy any of your monsters, but it will turn them face down, which means their effects are now null and void. And yes, my attack points now aren't great enough, but with three face up Meklord Monsters on the field, I can use the all-powerful Meklord Astro Dragon Asterisk!" A terrible wind shook the field, and all three of the Meklord monsters on the field glowed bright before vanishing, and out of the typhoon emerged a giant mechanical dragon, its massive copper tail waving across the field.

"This card gains attack equal to the total original attack of all Meklord monsters on the field sent to the graveyard used to make it up, that means this card has 5200 attack points!" The machine bellowed out a terrible noise and only grew bigger.

"I-It has how many!?" Topher exclaimed. _Not good, not good, not good, NOT good! _

"All 5200 of these attack points are headed right for your Dai-Sojo! Go, Infinity Burst!"

A beam shot forward from the machine's maw, the concussion blowing Topher down and onto his back, and leaving him with a measly 100 life points.

"Hahahahaha! You may as well resign now, if your great Barrier is so easily pierced, what hope do you have to come up with a weapon that can stop my all powerful beast!? Mind you if you even think about using your Defender of the Ice Barrier to tune, you'll take 1000 points of damage due to my dragon's effect!"

Topher stumbled back to his feet, recovering from the blast. "Laugh all you want, because this will be your last turn!" Come on deck, I need an answer. _This is the most important time of my life, pass or fail, win or lose! _Topher closed his eyes and drew what may very well be his last card, peeking an eye open to see what it was. _Ha, this deck has never let me down before, why would it start now?_

"Get ready, Mr. Green, because I'm about to show you a play you could never see coming! I summon out Prior of the Ice Barrier (100/**400**). A prayer in a time of need like this is just what my Ice Barrier army needs, and the Prior's wise words allow him to sacrifice himself for the great good; the greater good being to get back my Strategist (**level 4**). Next, I'll be break back out The Defender (**level 3 tuner**)."

"With an attention span like yours, I'm not sure that you'd pass your classes, even if you managed to make it in. If you Synchro Summon, you'll take 1000 points of damage, winning me the game!"

"You're a little too eager to remind me, but don't worry. I already know all about that. Now, the magician of the Ice Barrier army will come forth! Spending years obtaining knowledge and studying diligently under the coldest environment in the universe, he's here to take down your Dragon! Come forth, Arcanite Magician (**2400**/1800)!" A circle of intricate, glowing symbols appeared on the field, and through it came a glorious looking Wizard, with a large white robe.

"It was a valiant effort, but a foolish one none the less. Dragon Asterisk's effect activates—"

"Not so fast, I activate the quick-play spell card, Spell of Pain! This effect allows me to change the target of any instance of effect damage I would take to my opponent. Have a taste of your own medicine, Infinity Burst!"

"Only 1700 life points left!?" Mr. Green scowled after recovering from the effect. "But no matter, for you seem to be forgetting that I still have my monster on the field and neither of the monsters you have come anywhere close to rivalling my Dragon's power."

"This magician is more than brute strength. I activate its effect, by detaching one of the two spell counters this baby comes with; I can destroy any one card you control twice per turn. First, I activate its effect to clear out that face-down. And next, to destroy that Dragon of yours! Arcanite Magician, Wise Shot!" Topher took on an entirely new face as he commanded his monsters, and saw Mr. Green's field turn into a cloud of smoke. "And now, for the final battle charge, General Grunard, Piercing Freeze!"

The last attack of the duel headed Mr. Green's way and took him down to his knees, the life counter on both opponents duel disks flashing 0. There was a moment of silence before Mr. Green himself stood back up and applauded the play, looking rather impressed. _What a kid, I could have activated my face down or the Emperor Granel in my hand, but really, I wannna see this kid go places in the Academy. _"That was an amazing duel, Topher. I believe it's safe to say your entrance to the Academy is guaranteed after that one."

It wasn't long before the few duelists and overseers applauded themselves for the amazing come-back move. Topher just smiled and waved, scratching the back of his head, seemingly embarrassed at the praise. He shook hands with Mr. Green and both laughed before Topher walked back up the stairs to meet the boy, Crag, whom he'd met just before, finding another young boy taller than him with thick, swept to the left black hair.

"Dude, that was incredible!" The new boy proclaimed and extended his hand. "My name is Max by the way." The two shook hands and Topher looked back at Crag.

"Man, that was amazing, no matter how you did on the written exam, there's no way they can turn down a duelist like you!" Crag shared in the celebration.

"Hehe, it was nothing, just showing off what I've got!" Topher waved away the compliments, scratching his nose to try and get over all the compliments he wasn't used to getting.

"Attention Candidates. You have all performed admirably. You will be notified if you made it into the Academy. Thank you all for coming out." The PAA system announced. The three boys looked at each other and smiled.

"So… you two wanna hang out?" Topher asked, the other two nodded and they all ran out.


	2. Chapter 2

2: Newspring Duel Academy

It has now been a week since the entrance exams for the Academy. Test results have been sent back to all entrants, and those who have passed both their written entrance exams and their duel exams have been sent their student IDs. The trio of fast friends, Christopher, Alex, and Max have all passed and boarded the train ride that would take them into an unforeseeable future of duels and adventure.

"Dude, this is gonna be awesome!" Crag exclaimed over the chugging train's noise, speeding along the track. The Academy itself began to come into view after miles and miles of train-track. A massive statue of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon arched over the gates, the main building a behemoth of architecture. The three boys looked out of their windows and marveled at the scale of the entire environment.

"Gentlemen, we have arrived at the big leagues." Topher said and leaned back in his chair. The train continued speeding along towards the station at the other end of the forest. The train docked at the station and the new batch of students piled out and took their first look at the campus of Newspring Duel Academy.

A long road stretched out into the quad where a bunch of senior students were meeting up with all their old classmates from the summer break. Five branching paths lead out from the quad into different parts of the campus. Topher looked down the path that lead to the main building and saw Mr. Green walking towards them.

"Hey isn't that the duel proctor you had?" Max asked. Topher nodded in response as Mr. Green reached the group of new students.

"Allow me to be the first to welcome you to Newspring Duel Academy. I am Mr. Green and I shall be showing you towards the welcoming ceremony. If you would please follow me, now." Mr. Green turned and left. The freshman followed him obediently while giving looks at Topher.

"What's up with them?" He whispered to Crag

"That dude's probably a teacher here. Everyone saw you beat him so they're probably assuming you're good." Topher just shrugged the looks off and kept walking.

Inside the main building all the students filed into an auditorium with a large screen at the front. Students murmured as they waited for something to happen.

"Good afternoon students!" The monitor buzzed to life, displaying a man standing proud in what seemed to be a great office. He had a gentle face and a large bushy beard. "I am Chancellor Gibson and it is my honor to welcome you into our great school."

A hush spread over the crowd of freshman and the Chancellor continued. "First of all I would like to congratulate you on passing your exams. Based on your test results you will be separated into three dorms: Slifer Red, Ra Yellow, and Obelisk Blue. These dorms are where you will be staying as you study here at our prestigious academy."

"You will meet your dorm leaders before long at your respective dorm's welcoming dinners, but for now, please file lines to claim your own school blazers and campus maps. The screen will now tell you which dorm you belong to based on the color it assigns you. Please, enjoy the welcoming dinners we've prepare for you at your dormitories!"

Chancellor Gibson vanished from the screen and a large list appeared with everyone's names on it. They were separated into three columns with dorm and room placement. Topher found his name along with Max and Crag.

_The Slifer Red dorm, eh? Should be fun. _Topher looked down at Max and saw him looking down. Topher got up and headed down to get his blazer. Crag leaned over to Max.

"What's wrong man?" Max was clearly upset over something.

"It's just…I was hoping to get into Ra Yellow at least." He said and placed his head in his hand. Crag got up and grabbed his arm.

"Everyone has to start somewhere." He said and the two followed Topher. Topher pulled out a map and the other two looked over his shoulder to see which road to follow from the quad to get to their own dorm. "Okay, so we take a left here and…"

The trio got sorted and looked over themselves in their new school uniforms.

"Pretty snazzy, eh, Max?" Crag prodded, hoping to make his friend feel a little better about his placement.

"I guess. But don't you know about the way dorms work in any Dueling Academy?"

Topher just tilted his head in response. "What do you mean?"

"Well, it's pretty simple. You see, we're the bottom on the tier list, the Slifer Reds. That means we also get bottom tier dorms and classes, to make up for mediocre performance. In the middle are the Ra Yellows. They're typically younger students that show an awful lot of potential and shown to excel extremely in one or two areas, but they aren't consistently good at everything."

"Then we have the best of the best, or in some snobs' cases, the elite Obelisk Blue students. Either through connection or raw skill and talent, they've managed to make top percentile and get the highest quality lodgings in the whole Academy. It's all based on performance and seniority over the years, though."

"Now that I think about it… wasn't Slifer the god card Yugi used back in Battle City? He went on to be the King of Games, though, so are you sure you don't have that all backwards?" Crag sounded hopeful, but Max only shook his head.

"Sorry man, those are for sure the rules. Let's get going, it looks like most everyone else has anyways." They all turned about and headed for the exit, soon finding themselves back at the crossroads of the quad.

"Look over there, the fresh meat's arrived." A rather haughty voice sneered. Off to the side, on a bench, sat a trio of Obelisk Blue students. Even though they were sitting down, they somehow managed to look down on the new trio of Slifer Reds. "Hey, wait a minute, aren't you the kid that managed to beat Mr. Green?"

"Who wants to know?" Topher shot back, perhaps a little too defensively.

"You should mind the way you talk to Blue students around here. You're fresh, I can tell, so I'll give you some advice: You Reds? Stay at the bottom. It doesn't matter if you beat Mr. Green's weakest deck in the exams or not, trash will always be trash."

Max only looked down at the comment, but Topher remained firm. "We'll see who's trash by the end of the year, don't worry. Oh, and I'll be sure to let a Professor know what a great welcoming you gave us freshman."

"Tch. Let's get out of here. The place reeks of plebeians and scrubs." The leading Blue took his leave with his goonies, somehow managing to maintain dignity.

"Now where were we… oh yeah, come on, let's go!"

* * *

It was a long trek back across a dirt road and thick forestry of evergreen plant-life. Birdsong filled the air and the fresh Autumn breeze ruffled through the trio's blazers.

"Man, today is _amazing_." Crag breathed out. Finally, the trees parted ways, and the dirt path lead out to a large clearing. A horse-shoe shaped hotel of sorts surrounded two dueling rings laid out with white paint. The hotel was two floors high and a couple students were hanging out on the staircase. It had a red roof and a yellow body, and looked like it hadn't had a good paint-over in a couple years now.

"Woooah! This Red Dorm is rockin." Topher exclaimed.

"Pfft, you should see the Ra and Obelisk dorms then." Max sneered, still bitter it seemed.

"Nah, come on, it's our own place to stay, away from parents. I mean, the walk to the Academy's a bit much, but at least it's like a nature trail with shade." Topher meshed his hands together and put them behind his head.

"I think you're a little _too _positive sometimes, man." Crag commented.

"Well if I'm not, you two definitely aren't going to be. You've both gotta work on the whole confidence thing." Topher retorted, all three of them climbing up the stairs and passing by a couple other students who just waved to their new dorm-mates.

"Alright, we got room number 38 together, so let's check it out."

After quickly finding their room, they'd see it had the standard triple bunk bed, walk in closet, and PC allotted to the cramped dorms.

"… Do they seriously expect three people to live together in a space like this?" Crag said in disbelief.

"I think the ground rules should be pretty obvious. Let's respect our stuff, take care of our trash and clothes, and we won't wind up hating each other before the end of the year." Max put hand over hand and then threw them to either side, Crag and Topher nodded in agreement.

"Awesome. I guess the only thing left to do now is chill out until it's time for that dinner or whatever then. No way it's better than the one they're going to have at Ra though…" Max sorta trailed off and took a seat on the bottom bunk.

"So… We should totally have a duel then! Just for fun, I mean. You two know what I play, but I have no idea what you two play."

"I'll pass for now, Topher, but thanks. I'm worn out after all this walking around, but I guess I'm going to have to get used to it." Max said, laying back on his mattress.

"Oh, hey, I know what we can do. Let's check out those PDAs and synch them up to our student IDs. They might have some info on that one guy you dueled in the entrance exams we saw a while ago."

"There's no way he was one of those freelancers they hired to test the entrants if he was doing something like leading students around." Crag pulled out his PDA from a pocket and sat down in one of the two chairs in the room.

"Let me know what you find out, man. I'll just relax for now too, I guess." Topher almost sounded disappointed and climbed onto the top bunk.

A few minutes later, Crag spoke up, and the other two sat up to look at him. "Okay, got it. According to the staff page here, he's a teacher's assistant named Matthew Green, and he uses several variants of Machine type monsters. They track his stats like he's still a student, too, and considering his win-loss ratio, it's pretty crazy you beat him."

"Sweet. I guess I'm already building up a reputation here then." Topher just leaned back again.

"And the headmaster of the Slifer Red dorm is some guy named Mr. Waller. I guess we'll be greeting him before long. There's a notification that the welcome dinner will be held in just an hour on this thing too."

After an hour of tooling around, the three found their way to the packed mess hall, where all of the Slifer students had gathered. Laid out on the table was a terribly underwhelming meal. The lackluster "welcome dinner" managed to get the crowd into quite a buzz.

"Man, are you kidding me?" "I get better stuff than this at home." "This is still a school; what were expecting from school food?"

To interrupt it all, there was an older looking Slifer student with short black hair and a serious stature standing at the head of the hall with his arms crossed. "Professor, if you would please?"

"O-Of course, Vincent." A pale, meek looking professor wearing a white button-up shirt and black slacks stood up from a chair. He adjusted his tie and spoke terribly quietly, causing some students in the back to have to lean in to hear him.

"Please, everyone, call me Professor Waller, I'm the headmaster of the Slifer dorm and I'd like to tell you all a few things before you start eating. First and foremost, as Academy rules go, you will not be able to transfer classes until halfway through your second year, so we'll be seeing each other a lot."

"Next, there will be an exhibition duel between the two highest stature students from your entrance class tomorrow night at the Obelisk Blue dueling station. You can check your PDAs for more information. Now, without further ado, enjoy your meal! W-Wait, am I forgetting anything, Vincent?"

"No, very well done Professor." The student noted with a smile. "As the good Professor has said, my name is Vincent. If you need any advice or help, we'll both be here to help you out to the best of our abilities."

"I know that it's not the most prestigious thing to be placed in Slifer, but I've been here for three years of my own accord, and I promise you that it's not hard to move on if you apply yourself. A toast! To carrying the color red with pride!"

All of the students perked up a bit and cheered after the little speech, raising their own glasses as well, and conversation among classmates became much livelier once more.

* * *

After a long night of meeting fellow class-mates and making mostly non-awkward conversation, everyone retired back to their dorms. It was past curfew at this point but none of them could really settle down.

"Man, I can't _wait _for that duel tomorrow. It's going to be crazy hype!" Crag commented.

"See, that's the kind of excitement we all need. No way to get through a whole new world if you don't have something to look forward… to." Topher's response was interrupted by a yawn.

"I guess I'd be lying if I said I wasn't excited to see how the best of our class stack up right now. Gives me a brand new target to duel." Max said.

"Yeah, we'll show everyone here just how good we are… but for now, I'm just going to show this pillow who's boss. See ya tomorrow, guys."

"Good night." The other two said, and silence set in.

The next day was a proving ground for their new class. It wouldn't matter who won, but it'd be a matter of pride for all freshman, and a way to show the seniors they weren't just a bunch of punching bag. But for now, new friends had been made and the trios adventure in Newspring Duel Academy had just begun.


	3. Chapter 3

3: Duel! The Top Two Throw Down

The next day came and the Slifer trio was ready to take it head on. The three talked over breakfast in the mess hall about the class schedules sent to them on their PDAs.

"First up is Synchro summoning with Professor Kingsly, deck synergy with Professor Yuhai. I guess the dorm leaders do a lot around here?" Crag tilted his head at the idea, thinking they already had a full schedule. Max just shrugged.

"They've got a lot on their plates, sure, but they _do _have the title of 'Professor' for a reason. They still have to teach." Topher just nodded in response and turned his attention to Professor Waller.

"Professor Waller, it says here you teach a class about normal monsters. What's that all about?" Professor Waller looked a little lost at the question. Vincent got up and walked over to Topher, leaning over to whisper something.

"He's teaching it hoping someone will actually decide to give normal monsters some attention as something more than a foot-stool to better stuff." Topher nodded in understanding and returned to his meal. Crag leaned over his PDA.

"Man, you've got to be kidding me. According to this map, our classes are all over the campus, it's like they want us to be late." He shouted and threw himself back, slumping on the creaky wooden chair.

"It's just like I said yesterday, it's all about seniority here. The more you prove yourself, the better everything is for you. I'm sure it won't be long before we're the ones hyucking it up about lower class students." Max said, letting out a chuckle at how dramatic Crag was being.

"Don't get too ahead of your selves," Vincent said with a sly looking smile. "Your first class starts in ten minutes now, and you guys are still here eating breakfast."

"What!?" The three exclaimed all at once.

The three scarfed down the rest of their meals in seconds and jumped out after grabbing their gear, leaving Vincent and Professor Waller feeling like they'd been put onto slow motion. Topher ran in front of the pack with the other two lagging behind.

"Wait up!" Max called out but Topher didn't slow down.

"No way, I can't be late again! I was late to the _entrance exams, _you think they're going to be nice if I'm late for my classes too?" Topher called back and kept running. Crag and Max stumbled along, keeping pace, knowing what a bad impression being late on the first day of school would be.

"I know I said the duel tonight was going to be hype, but the first day of classes? Not as hype." Crag sighed out as the three tired themselves out before they even managed to get there.

For the whole day the group sat through the professors telling them how to play a game they have known for years, for the most part just introducing themselves and the curriculum. Max and Crag took detailed notes on each subject while Topher just sat and listened, his mind supplied far-fetched ideas for new cards he could get at the Academy. As the final bell rang everyone started to pile out of the room. Still on autopilot, Topher managed to slam right into another student on his way out.

"Youch! Oh jeez, I'm sorry." Topher stammered out before taking a look at who he bumped into.

"It's cool, man, don't worry about it," The Obelisk student shrugged it off, only to turn around and look back at Topher. "Wait a minute, I recognize you. You're the kid who beat that Teachers Aid." Topher just gave a sort of embarrassed half smile and rubbed the back of his head.

"Yeah, that's me. Seems everyone at school knows about it." He stretched out his hand towards the Blue student. "Names Christopher, but please, call me Topher." The Obelisk accepted the handshake.

"Call me Shawn." He introduced and the two started walking out of the classroom. Crag and Max caught up and after a couple introductions, everyone was acquainted.

"I take it you've heard about the show case duel that's supposed to happen tonight?" Crag asked.

"Yes, I suppose I do. It'd be pretty awkward if one of the duelists in it didn't know that it was happening tonight." Shawn replied. The three reds stopped for a second and their mouths opened involuntarily. Shawn just looked back, puzzled. "Was it something I said?" Topher walked over and slapped Shawn on the shoulder.

"You've gotta be pretty freakin' good to be a part of that duel! We heard it was between the top two from the entrance exams." Topher praised.

"It's nothing, really. Just applied studies and a lot of time spent looking over all sorts of decks. Besides, the written part of the entrance exam is nothing, or at least I've heard, compared to the quiz day they have here."

"Huh? What do you mean quiz day? Like mid-terms and stuff?"

"Ha! I wish quizzes only came that often here. Every Friday, starting next Friday, there's an end of the week quiz both on what you've learned and general studies. They make or break students every week and make sure that everyone stays on top of their game." Shawn responded.

By the way the slightly smug guy carried himself; he seemed to be the sort of person who really prided themselves on their knowledge.

Over time, they seemed to merge with a crowd headed towards the Obelisk Blue duel arena. The duel arena housed the most current and state of the art Solid Vision system. This system is capable of projecting cards to look like real monsters and to give the feeling of a real duel, actually knocking back opponents.

Inside the arena the Slifer trio found seats in a higher section. Excitement for the duel was practically palpable in the air as more and more students began to pile in.

"Dude this is gonna _rock_!" Crag exclaimed and pumped a fist in the air.

"Ladies and Gentlemen!" One of the professors took to the center stage and began announcing. "I would like to welcome you all to the first exhibition duel of the school year! Let's hear it for Newspring Duel Academy!" The professor raised his microphone to the air and a mighty cheer shook the stage.

"Now please help me in welcoming from the Obelisk Blue dorm, Shawn Heath!" The lights dimmed and a spotlight took focus on one of the two entrances to the arena, showcasing the same student the Slifer trio had met not too long ago.

He entered onto his own side of the stage and the crowd erupted in applause as he waved back. "Save your enthusiasm for just a bit longer, because I need to introduce the other duelist tonight, students. I bring to you Johnathan Reginald the 3rd as the second duelist of tonight's event!"

At the call of the name, the spotlights shifted and another Obelisk Blue took the stage, not waving or responding to the cheering, and looking rather smug and pompous.

"Hey Topher, isn't that the same Obelisk jerk from yesterday?" Crag asked. Topher nodded and leaned back, now even more eager to see the duel unfold.

_Now let's see if he has the skill to back up all that talk_

"Alright now students I want a nice, clean duel. No traps below the belt. We do this our way or the highway here at Newspring. Now begin!" The professor ran off the stage and the two duel disks flashed to life with their rainbow energy.

"Let's Duel!" The two shouted and the contest was on.

"I'll go first!" Shawn called out, the opponent just nodded to confirm. _This guy is right up there with me, I can't afford to give an inch. _"Draw!"

Shawn took a moment to look over his cards before starting his turn proper. "I'll start by summoning out Bujin Yamato in attack mode (**1800**/200) and setting one card face down. I'll end my turn, which allows me to activate Yamato's effect."

_An effect that goes off at the end of the turn? Not many cards out there that do that. _Topher thought in the stands.

"This effect allows me to add one Bujin monster from my deck to my hand, and then discard one card from my hand. I'll pick up Bujingi Crane and discard one card to the grave. That'll do it for now."

"Ah, thank goodness. I was rather tired of waiting." John commented with a sneer. "It's my move, draw! Hm, this hand is rather terrible, so I think a Trade-In is necessary, and I have literally that card to do so. This will allow me to discard one level 8 monster from my hand to the graveyard in order to draw two more."

"Say good-bye for now, Blue-Eyes White Dragon!" After showing the card, nearly the entire audience gasped at the announcement that there was a student here that had managed to get his hands on a copy of Blue-Eyes, and Shawn changed his stance.

"What's the matter, scared already?" John commented as he drew two new cards. "Hm, it appears fate has been rather kind to me. Next I'll set one monster in defense mode and activate the spell card Gold Sarcophagus! This spell card allows me to send any one card into my banished zone and recover it two turns later. Your clock's already started ticking, I'm afraid."

"Bah, your dragons don't scare me. I don't care how much attack or defense your monsters have, in the face of the War Gods themselves, they don't stand a chance. Draw." _That face down monster… Since he didn't set any back row, I know he wants me to attack it, but it's too early to be cautious. If I'm going to let him do what he wants, I'd best get some damage in anyways._

"I'll normal summon Bujingi Quilin (**1600**/900) in attack mode. Next I'll have Quilin attack your face down monster." The monster was flipped to reveal Eclipse Wyvern (1600/**1000**), and promptly exploded into glowing fragments. "See? No match for the War Gods."

"Buffoon, I _wanted_ that monster gone," John rebuked. "When Eclipse Wyvern is sent to the graveyard, I can remove from play one level 7 or higher dark or light Dragon monster from my deck. And the monster I choose with this effect is Red Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon!"

Another hush swept over the audience before it returned to its cheering. "Guys," Max shouted over the crowd, "You know both of those decks are tier one right now? No wonder they did so well, it's not skill at all!"

"Don't be too quick to judge, these two have been setting up their fields since turn one." Crag commented. "You know how rare these cards all are anyways, right?" Max just nodded and leaned back again, apparently much less interested in the duel now.

"Maybe so, but you're about to take an awful lot of damage from Yamato himself. Go, Sacred Aura!" The clouds from the glass dome above that showcased the late afternoon seemed to part and a white light struck down on John, dealing 1800 points of damage. Through this, however, John stood his ground and only got pushed back a little.

"And now that it's the end of my turn, I'll draw Bujingi Centipede and send it straight to the graveyard. It's your move." Shawn relaxed his stance and John's only intensified.

"You're right, and now I can truly begin the duel. Draw!" John took a moment to look over his cards, his eyes darted about in a certain way, Topher noticed, perhaps to confirm the order of his move. "I'll start by summoning out the Maiden with Eyes of Blue (**0**/0) in attack mode."

"Her attack may be pathetic, but in times of need, this Maiden can actually bring forth the spirits of the great dragons themselves. When targeted for an attack or by an effect, this card allows me to special summon another Blue-Eyes White Dragon."

"No way, you have more than one!?" Shawn broke his confident stance and took a step back at the revelation.

"I think you'll find that I have as many as I'm allowed. Three, that is. And you're right to have fear, for I have just the means to bring one out! I activate the spell card Wonder Wand, and equip it to my Maiden. Fair Maiden, if thou would please, call forth the mighty dragon spirit you control." The Maiden raised the wand and a portal revealed itself, lightning crashing down from within it as a Blue-Eyes (**3000**/2500) soared out of it.

"N-No way!" Crag seemed entranced by the duel. "Does this guy really have all of these rare dragons? I mean, I know they reprinted the Blue-Eyes finally, but how did he manage to get his hands on three of them already?"

"Probably money. You throw enough of it around and you get whatever you want. Don't be mistaken, though, there's no way this guy really knows how to play this deck. He'll crash and burn before long." Max commented dismissively.

_I dunno about that, these two are really heated up for this duel. _Topher decided it would be best to keep his thoughts to himself for once and just watch the duel.

"Next, I'll activate the effect of Redox, Dragon Ruler of Boulders from my hand. By discarding itself and one other Earth attribute monster to the grave, I can special summon any monster from my Graveyard. Remember when I said 'bye for now'? I meant it. Come back, my second Blue-Eyes (**3000**/2500)!"

The same portal revealed itself and another Blue-Eyes descended onto the field, letting out a mighty cry. John's field was altogether intimidating.

"Battle! Blue-Eyes number one, attack Quilin! White Lightning!"

_Dammit, I didn't want to have to use this yet, but I can't afford too much damage with cards like those. _"I activate my face down, Forbidden Lance! This card allows me to reduce your Blue-Eyes' attack points by 800 (3000 to **2200**), for the purpose of it not being affected by other spells or traps this turn."

The burst of light that emanated from the first Blue-Eyes suddenly turned into a hurled lance and pierced through Bujingi Quilin.

"Ah, a nice spell card, too bad it won't save you from my second Blue-Eyes attack. Once more, White Lightning!"

"Not so fast. I activate from my hand Bujingi Crane. Since you attacked Yamato, I can discard this card to the Graveyard in order to double Yamato's attack for this battle (1800 to **3600**). And since this activates during the damage step, you can't cancel your attack."

"Oh no!"

"Oh yes. Stand tall Yamato with Sacred Aura!" The Yamato grew in size and stopped the lightning that had been targeting him in its tracks, washed out by the ray of light that shone down.

"That's too bad, but my turn isn't quite over yet." John hardly seemed distraught after having lost one of his ace monsters. "I'll be activating the other effect of Wonder Wand, which allows me to send both it and its wielder to the Graveyard in order to draw two cards. I'll end my turn by setting two cards face down. Try and surpass the might of my Blue-Eyes now!"

"If you think taunts like that will work, then you're sorely mistaken. Draw!" _He's only got one monster to defend himself, those two cards in the back must be bluffs. I'm sitting comfy with 3400 life points, and he's only got a measly 1600. I'll take him down in style this turn, then we'll see who's the top duelist._

"It's been fun, but I'm afraid this duel is all but over. I'll start by summoning out Vivit Knight (**1700**/800). Next, I'll exceed summon using both my Yamato and Vivit Knight in order to special summon the almighty Bujintei Kagatsuchi (**2500**/2000)!" A circle of fire roared to life on the field and the fearsome beast Kagutsuchi crawled out of it.

"You may be thinking 'but that's nowhere near enough attack to stand up to my dragon.' Well think again, because I'm going to activate its effect. When this monster is special summoned, I send the top 5 cards of my deck to the grave, and for each Bujin card sent, this card gains 100 attack for it."

Shawn picked up the top 5 cards from his deck and showed them to John. "Well, will you look at that? All five of them have 'Bujin' in the name, that means Kagutsuchi (2500 to **3000**) is more than enough to take on your Blue-Eyes. And that's not all, I'm going to activate the spell card Bujinsmith."

"This card allows me to special summon a Beast-Warrior 'Bujin' monster from my graveyard at the cost of its effect being negated and it being removed from play when it leaves the field, and I'll be bringing back the Bujin Yamato that was just sent to the grave." _Nice, just enough to end this, and with the Hare in the grave, Crane in hand, and Kagatsuchi's effect, this will wrap up nicely._

"Now enough build up, let's go, full force, Kagatsuchi, lay waste to that Blue-Eyes White Dragon. Eternal Flame!"

"Aww, you spent so much time building up this field only to have it crushed by my trap card." John seemed anything but pitying as he revealed one of his face down cards. "I play the trap card, Mirror Force. This card destroys all of your face-up attack position monsters when you attack."

"More like that's adorable." Shawn snapped back. "I activate the effect of the Bujingi Hare in my graveyard and Kagatsuchi's effect, negating destruction of my monsters by any means. This attack will continue."

"Wh-What!? Then I suppose I have no choice but to activate my second face-down, Waboku. This negates any battle damage and the destruction of any of my monsters by battle. And you hoped to end me this turn, what a shame. Oh, and just a reminder, the clock never stopped ticking. My next turn will be the last of the duel."

"Fat chance, my field right now is impenetrable. My monsters can't be targeted, destroyed, and I _know _you haven't forgotten that I have a Bujingi Crane in my hand."

John just shrugged his shoulders and flicked his hair to the side, the cockiest of grins gracing his face. "You'll see. I haven't even begun to tap into the true power of this deck."

"What!?" Crag shouted, causing both Topher and Max to recoil in shock. "What could he have that's stronger than a Blue-Eyes?"

Max just rolled his eyes. "You kidding me? You know what makes dragons work so well, right? The ability to merge into creatures with the most raw power in all of duel monsters. I don't know what he put away with Gold Sarcophagus, but we're about to find out. His threat just might be true…"

"Draw!" John practically shaped into an entirely different being as an aura seemed to take over him. _The heck? There's something totally different about him, that's the same way I get when I get to use Dewloren… What kind of ace monster is he about to bring out?_ Topher's mind was abuzz with any plays that John could make.

"It's been two standby phases since the activation of Gold Sarcophagus, and it will now allow me to add the card I desired straight to my hand."

"I'll start this rather complicated turn by activating the spell card Reasoning. I flip cards from the top of my deck over until I reach a monster that could be normal summoned and then get to special summon it to the field. That is, if you don't call whatever level that happens to be correctly. So go ahead and guess, I can already feel what's right on top of my deck."

_I've gotta be smart about this… He's probably been holding onto the third Blue-Eyes this whole time, and that card he added must have been Dragon's mirror. So the most likely thing is for him to have another one of those level 7 dragons on top._ "Seven. It must be a level 7 monster."

John turned over the top card from his deck and revealed it to be Card Trooper, Shawn just looked stunned. _I was wrong…? No way!_ "I'm afraid you're terribly wrong. Now I get to special summon Card Trooper (**400**/500)! This little trooper is the key to this entire turn. His effect allows me to send three cards from the top of my deck to the graveyard and gain 500 attack points for each one. I'll do just that now (400 to **1900**)."

"Ah, it would appear that one of these cards is another Eclipse Wyvern. I've explained his effect before, so I'll simply let you know that I'm banishing the third Blue-Eyes. See? I would never lie about how powerful my cards are. Next, I'll activate the all-powerful spell card Dragon's Mirror! With this card, I remove from play five Dragon-Type monsters from my Grave, both of my Wyverns, Tidal, Redox, and Golem Dragon in order to bring forth the god of all dragons! The Five-Headed Dragon (**5000**/5000)!

_Woah, no kidding? But that won't be enough with Crane and Kagatsuchi's effect, even I know that. _"A lot of things are about to happen all at once, and I don't think this Shawn will be able to keep up, even with the field he's got."

"What? No way, he laid it out for us, there's no way to get over this with just one monster, no matter how high its attack gets." _I have a feeling we're about to see a lot more than just one monster, though, Crag._

"Try and keep up, by removing the two Wyvern's, this allows me to add the two dragon monsters I removed earlier with their effect, come back to me, Red Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon and my third Blue-Eyes!"

"Don't bother sitting down yet because we're still not done here. When Redox was removed, his effect allows me to add to my hand another Earth Dragon-type monster to my hand, and I'll be choosing the third Golem Dragon. And keep in mind; I haven't even normal summoned yet. But I think I'll do that now and bring out the Golem Dragon I just added. He won't be around for long, though, because I'll be activating this Red-Eyes effect to remove from play a face-up dragon in order to special summon it."

"My, oh my, this is the deck that just keeps giving, isn't it? Hold any applause for just a while longer, audience, for this Red-Eyes has another special effect. He'll allow me to special summon another dragon-type monster from my grave or hand and I'll choose the third Blue-Eyes I added not too long ago into my hand. Next, I'll overlay the two Blue-Eyes on the field into another legendary Dragon monster."

_There's just no way! This deck keeps piling on more and more onto the field, I'm starting to feel like _I'm _the one who needs to take a breath._

"Come forth, the legendary Number 62: Galaxy-Eyes Prime Photon Dragon (**4000**/3000)! Photon Dragon over here gains 200 attack points for each collective rank face up on the field. Between its 8 ranks and your Kagutsuchi's 4 ranks, that means I'll be gaining 2400 attack points (4000 to **6400**). The only down-side is that you take half-damage for any attacks this beast dishes out if it doesn't have the right materials."

The entire arena was agape at the sheer power that John had managed to bring out. "I'll start by having Five-Headed Dragon attack your Yamato. Unless you choose to block this, the game's over."

"I won't, I'll take the 3200 points of damage with pride!"

The blast of the attack shook the arena and the percussion of the explosion knocked back Shawn.

"Then next, I'm afraid this is game no matter what. Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon, finish this duel with the might of 6400 attack points!"

"Sorry Kagastuchi, but I suppose this is it, but we'll go down fighting. I activate the Crane in my hand, which turns its attack points into double its original attack points and I'll remove from play a Hare in the grave, even though I've lost, there's no way the War Gods are leaving the field!"

The final blast knocked Shawn back once more, and a buzzer sounded off as his life points dropped from the remaining 200 to 0.

The duel had ended and the crowd roared with excitement. "We have our winner, ladies and gentleman! John is now declared to be the top student of the new joining class! Give it up for both duelists for their tremendous effort!" John walked off waving his arms at all the attention he was receiving and Shawn just went out of his own exit.. The Slifer trio just sat stunned at what they witnessed.

"I can't believe that the Bujins lost." Max said, still stunned by what happened.

"Before this, I haven't even heard about those Elemental Dragon cards." Crag commented, just as dazed.

"Well it's no surprise that you haven't heard of them. They aren't scheduled for release for another year yet." Topher explained. Crag looked over quizzically.

"Then how do you know about them?" Topher tightened his fists.

"When I heard that they were coming out with the dragons I got as much information as I could. But seeing them in action has only made my need all the more real. That Tidal Dragon, it would make my deck even more powerful." The trio got up and started heading out of the arena. Topher kept ahead of the other duo.

"Come on. Let's get back to our dorm and duel. I need a duel after watching that!" Crag somehow seemed more excited coming out than he had coming in. Max took a second to look back at the Obelisk Blue seal at the top of the gateway for a moment before joining his friends.


	4. Chapter 4

4: Snap, Craggle, Pop

The first month at duel academy was strenuous for the Slifer trio. The tests at the end of each week pushed each of the students to new levels. Topher adapted well to school life, while not very attentive, he wasn't exactly slacking off either. That's what happens when classes so far have only been reaffirming the basics for him. Max, on the other hand, was diligent in his school work. He never failed to take a new challenge head on but something was always off about him when it came to dueling. Crag, as it would turn out, was a special case. He was failing one of the major classes and was at risk of failing the course.

"I still don't understand how you're failing the extra deck class Crag." Topher said one early Saturday when the group was studying in their room. Crag sighed and shut his text book.

"I still don't see why I need to take that class. I don't even use an extra deck to begin with." Max seemed to be fed up with comments like that at this point and glared at Crag.

"That's the whole problem! Your deck type is limited as is, not putting any Synchro or XYZ monsters in only makes it worse." Crag didn't seem to be in the mood to tolerate this either, promptly storming out of the room. Topher looked over at Max and shook his head.

"There's this thing called subtlety. Try using it next time you're talking to someone who's failing a course." Topher said and took off after Crag.

Crag walked down the path heading nowhere in particular. He looked down at his cards and started to feel himself tightening up.

"Yo, Crag wait up!" Crag turned around and saw Topher running up to him.

"Hey man."

"Hey, don't let what Max said get to you." Topher reached out and patted Crag on the shoulder. Crag looked back down at his deck after a couple seconds. The way he moved his body was uncertain and a little shaky.

"No, he's right," Crag said solemnly. "My deck feels like it's missing something. It may sound crazy, but I feel connected to my cards. Adding on an extra deck just feels like I'd be betraying them somehow." Topher nodded in understanding before he reached into his deck pouch and took out a card, holding it up for Crag to see.

"You see this card? It's Dewloren, Tiger King of the Ice Barrier. He's one of the first cards I ever got when I started Duel Monsters. It's very special to me. But I also have Arcanite Magician." Topher took out the second card from his deck and showed it to Crag. "Just because a card isn't totally part of your archetype doesn't mean it can't fit with your deck." At this point, Crag started to tune out the conversation. Topher didn't seem to pick up on this though, because he kept rambling on about cards.

After a while, the two students found themselves in the main school building. Topher finally broke his daze and started to walk a little ahead of Crag, trying to get his attention back.

"Um, where exactly are we going?" Topher asked. Crag pointed to an office that had a sign on the door reading "Tutoring Sign Ups."

"I'm getting myself a tutor for this class." Crag walked into the room, leaving Topher to entertain himself by kicking about the dust on the floor.

"Well this is one of the last places I would expect to find you." Topher looked around for the source of the new voice. At the far end of the hall Mr. Green walked calmly towards the Slifer student, a rather full looking manila envelope under his arm.

"Uh, good afternoon Mr. Green." Topher replied. The TA came up to him and looked at the door.

"Nervous about asking for help?" Mr. Green said with a bit of a smirk. Topher, not picking up on the sarcasm soured a bit.

"No. Crag is inside trying to find a tutor for the Extra Deck class." Mr. Green looked at the door and back to Topher, pausing only for a few seconds.

"I'll be right back." Mr. Green said and slipped into the room. Topher sighed and continued waiting, any attempts to amuse himself proving futile.

Five minutes had passed when Mr. Green exited the office with Crag in tow. Crag seemed more upbeat now.

"So everything go well?" Topher asked. Crag looked at him and a smile broke out on his face.

"Yep, gonna start tomorrow afternoon with my tutor. Thanks again Mr. Green."

"It was nothing. These tutors will do anything for extra credit. I'll see you two later then." Mr. Green nodded to both of them and turned away. Topher slapped Crag on the shoulder the two headed back off towards the dorm.

The next day shone in through the windows of the Slifer dorm, but the three remained blissfully unaware of this. The first to notice the time of day was Max when a stray beam of light hit his face. Groggily he got up and looked over at a clock on the desk. The flashing red numbers read 11:30AM. He shot up and shook Crag awake. Crag just turned over and grumbled.

"Crag if you don't get up right now you're going to miss the first day with your tutor!" Crag bolted upright, accidentally slamming his head into the bottom of Topher's bunk, waking him up.

"Boku no taan, DRAU!" He exclaimed and drew a card from his "duel disk". Max and Crag both gave Topher a look of utter confusion. He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"Let's just… never speak of this incident again." The three nodded together and got prepared for the day.

Right around noon everyone was out in the duel arenas for practice duels. The trio of friends were all standing around watching when a Ra Yellow student came walking up.

"Excuse me, which one of you is Alex?" He asked. Topher nudged Crag towards the new Ra student.

"Here he is. Please work some magic on him, he's got hope to pass this class, but man." The Ra extended his hand and Crag shook it, shooting an indignant look back at Topher.

"The pleasure's all mine. The name's Tanner, by the way. Shall we go inside and work on your deck?" Crag nodded and the two headed towards the dining hall. Topher and Max both snuck in after them to listen in on their friend's instruction.

Inside the hall Tanner and Crag both took a seat at one of the tables. Tanner looked a bit disgusted with the condition of the Red dorm, and it didn't take long for Crag to notice this.

"Is there something wrong?"

"Oh no, it's just I am not use to seeing such a rundown dorm. Everything's way cleaner and what-not at Ra Yellow." Crag just shrugged and carried on, not really that offended since it wasn't really an insult.

"Ok. First, can I look at your deck?" Tanner asked. Crag handed him his deck and he looked through it. "Lightsworns, eh? Not bad, there are some pretty cool plays you can do with these things and they're pretty unorthodox. Alright, now let's see your extra deck."

"I don't have one." Tanner's face dropped, shook, and then recoiled; the comment forced him to do a double take.

"Wait. I'm sorry, I don't think I heard that correctly. You don't have an extra deck?" He said with a chuckle

"No, you heard me right, I don't even have an extra deck. That's why I came for a tutor."

"Well I thought you had a crap extra deck and wanted help. I don't think anyone can help with a train wreck like this." While the argument was going on Topher and Max were leaning into the doorway to listen in. Once Tanner made this comment, though, both had the same thought.

_Oh no he didn't!_

"What gives you the right to insult _my_ deck?! Just because you have an extra deck doesn't mean you can criticize _my_ deck!" Crag was furious at Tanner and let his mind go free.

_Ok this won't end well._ Max thought as he saw Tanner pull out a duel disk.

"Ha! I guess words won't suffice. Let me prove to you how powerless a deck with no backup is!" Crag nodded and ran out to get his own duel disk, completely passing Topher and Max without looking at them. Tanner walked outside to a duel arena and Crag soon joined him. Topher stepped into the middle of the duel arena and raised his hands to protest.

"Guys, come on, this doesn't have to end in a duel… Oh, who am I kidding this is _Duel_ Academy!" He sighed and ran out of the arena. The duel disks for the two activated and the life point counter rose to 4000.

"Let's duel!" They both cried and drew their hands.

"I'll go first!" The tutor called out, drawing his card. "I need to teach you something about what an Extra Deck can really do for you. I'll start my turn by summoning out the Summoner Monk. Due to its effect, it's immediately switched into defense mode when summoned face up (800/**1600**)."

"Pfft, something as lame as that isn't going to stop my monsters!" Crag said, his face was scrunched up some, obviously still mad.

"Don't get so ahead of yourself, this is literally the first thing I've done this turn. I guess you need to learn patience as well as how to make your deck less worthless. I activate Summoner Monk's special ability. By discarding one spell card from my hand, I can special summon a level four monster from my deck. And in this case, it's the Sacred Crane!"

A white, four-winged crane rose from the ground and let out a cry, making Tanner glow.

"Sacred Crane also has a special ability, when its special summoned, I can draw a card. Ah, nice catch. Next, do you know what you can do when you have two level four monsters on the field?"

"Duh, you can XYZ summon a rank four monster, stop wasting my time." Crag commented, fresh salt was in his voice after the last insult the tutor handed out.

"Ah, so you have learned something in class, good job! In particular, I'll be Exceed Summoning Number 39: Utopia in attack mode (**2500**/2000)." A black hole seemed to appear over part of the field before a great white and golden warrior rose, turning its sword towards Crag. Two wisps of light circled around the monster, representing the overlay materials.

"Next, I'll set one card and end my turn. Show me how you plan to overcome my monster."

Topher and Max leaned over the railing on the second floor of the Slifer Dorm, spectating eagerly. "This isn't good." Max commented.

"What do you mean this isn't good? Crag's going to wipe the floor with this guy."

Max turned to Topher and gave him a serious look. "Have you seen what the Utopia monsters can do? This guy's entire deck must be focused around the monster."

"I guess I've never even heard of this monster, really." Topher admitted hesitantly.

"I guess this really will be a lesson for all of us." Max made one last comment before turning his attention back to the duel.

"My move then; draw!" Crag looked over the field for a good ten seconds before he made a move.

_Man, there was an extra credit report I could do on this card and all of its forms… It prevented something. Destruction? Whatever, this card won't care what it prevents. I'll have to lame it out for now. _"I'll set one monster face down and two cards in my back-row to end my turn."

"Hmph. And here I thought you were going to show me how much an Extra Deck doesn't matter." Tanner commented snappily before drawing his card.

"Hold on a moment, during your draw phase, I activate the trap card, Compulsory Evacuation Device. This card returns a monster on the field to hand, or in the case of your XYZ monster, back to the extra deck!" A cannon appeared underneath the Utopia and start to suck it in.

"I'm not sorry to say that you won't be doing that. From my hand I activate the quick-play spell card, Rank-Up-Magic Quick Chaos."

"Not a rank-up card, ugh!" Crag stamped his foot down.

"Don't have an answer for this? What a shame, because with this card, I can summon a 'Number C' monster with the same number in its name as a monster on the field and take the original monsters materials to boot." Utopia's armor died itself red and purple instead and the monster took up a new pose.

"Not only does this get rid of your target, but I now have Number C39: Utopia Ray V on the field (**2600**/2000)! It's got an ability I'm pretty fond of too, see, because it has a Utopia monster as a material, I can detach another material and destroy one of your monsters, and I choose your face down."

The face down was revealed to be a Necro Gardna (600/**1300**) before it shattered into fragments of light.

"Cute strategy, setting a Necro Gardna. But you won't be able to stop _two_ monsters attacks this turn. Now that it's the battle phase, I activate my face-down, XYZ Reborn! This card lets me bring back an XYZ monster from the grave to the field, and XYZ Reborn itself becomes a material. The monster I detached earlier to use Ray V's effect? Well, you can figure it out, be reborn, Utopia!"

"Now that you're staring down two of these monsters, I'll attack first with Utopia, then second, I'll attack with Utopia Ray V!"

"Necro Gardna's special ability activates when your second attack would go through, by removing it from play, I can stop your attack." The first blade cut through Crag regardless, dropping him down to 1500 life points, and brought him down to his knees.

"So far, I'm not impressed, but I guess you've got at least one more turn left in you before I'm the winner. So go ahead, I set one card and end my turn." Tanner commented smugly.

Crag rose back up and took his draw. "You're wrong about that; I've got way more than one turn left in me. And I'll start my turn by summoning Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress in attack mode (**1700**/200)!"

"But that's not all, I activate her special ability. By shifting her to defense mode I can destroy one of your spells or traps, and I'll pick the face-down you just set. I'll end my turn, but Lyla's effect goes off, allowing me to send three cards from the top of my deck to the grave."

_Nice! He's got no back-row now. Even better, a Judgment Dragon and another Necro Gardna is in my grave now. Won't be long before this duel is mine. _A smile crept onto Crag's face, he seemed to have regained his posture and found his confidence.

"Got something up your sleeve do you?" The tutor remarked snidely. "That's cool; it would just be embarrassing if you didn't put up any fight. It's my turn now, though, and I draw." Tanner made a pretty disappointed expression before he looked over the field.

"Whatever, I'll go straight to the battle phase. Utopia, attack this Sorceress." Utopia's blade cut through the woman like it cut through Crag not too long ago, with no resistance. "And next, Utopia Ray V, attack him directly and end this pathetic duel!"

"Ever heard of deja-vu?" Crag interrupted with a smirk. "Well, it doesn't really matter, because now I activate another Necro Gardna from grave, and negate the direct attack you would have had."

"Cocky little thing, aren't you? Well, I guess you managed to squirm your way into another turn. I'll set one card face-down and end my turn."

"Crag's really against the wall with this one, isn't he? This guy keeps pulling his resources together and this field's pretty stacked." Topher sounded worried for Crag's sake.

"It's starting to look pretty bad, yeah. But Crag's been able to build up a proper hand these last couple of turns; hopefully he can do something with it now." Max responded.

"Draw!" Crag cried out. "I'll start this turn by activating the spell card Solar Recharge. By discarding one 'Lightsworn' Monster in my hand, I can draw two more cards, and then send the top two from my deck to the grave. I'll be sending Gragonith, Lightsworn Dragon to the grave."

A white aura surrounded Crag as he took his two new cards and two more were sent to the grave. "Sweet! Next, I normal summon Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner (**1000**/1000). This beauty of a card lets me discard a card in my hand to special summon a level 4 or lower 'Lightsworn' monster from the grave. And I'll do so right now to special summon back Ehren, Lightsworn Monk in attack mode (**1600**/1000)!"

"Have you heard the legends, perchance, of the greatest Dragon of them all?" Crag commented, going full on smug mode.

"If you're talking about the Judgment Dragon, then yes, everyone knows that he works with Lightsworns." Tanner commented, not liking where this was going.

"Ah, then you know what comes next. I activate the trap card I've had set this entire time, Beckoning Light! By discarding the two remaining cards in my hand, I can now draw the same number of Light monsters from grave to hand. In the case of this card, I have to show you what I add back, too."

A beam caused the cards in Crag's hand to flash, and enlarged themselves for the opponent to see, displaying Judgment Dragon and Honest.

"The heck!? How'd you manage to get your hands on an Honest, kid?" The tutor had to take a step back to take in the circumstances he was now in.

"I'll tell you how after I beat you. I happen to have four Lightsworns in my grave, which means I meet the summoning conditions for the Judgment Dragon in my hand, so come forth and reign retribution upon my opponent's field!"

Rays of divine light shone down upon Crag's side of the field, and a fearsome white dragon descended down gracefully from the clouds. With a mighty thud, Judgment Dragon (**3000**/2600) had landed.

"Attack Number 39: Utopia, Judgment Dragon, with Scales of Light!" A ball of energy began charging up in the giant dragon's mouth.

"Not so fast, Utopia has a special effect. By detaching a material from it, I can negate an attack!" The light fizzled and Judgment Dragon's large form still stood towering over the field.

"It doesn't really matter. During main phase 2, I activate Judgment Dragon's special ability, which destroys all cards on the field except itself at the cost of 1000 life points. So go, Final Judgment!"

A single blinding flash caused everyone to close their eyes for a few seconds before looking back to see the decimated field. Crag's life point counter beeped as it dwindled down to only 500, and Tanner's was still at 4000.

"This is pretty much game. You've only got two cards in your hand, and I know there's literally no way any of your monsters could stand up to Judgment Dragon backed up by an Honest. Oh, and during the end-phase, I mill the top four cards of my deck."

"Maybe not in battle, but it's not like Judgment Dragon is immune to destruction by any other effects. It's my move, and I draw! I'll start the last turn of this duel by normal summoning out V-Salamander (**1500**/1300)!"

"Our little v-shaped salamander may not look like much, but don't worry, it always brings back up through its special ability. When this card is normal summoned, I can special summon from the grave any 'Utopia' monster. You can't go wrong with a classic, so I'm taking back Number 39: Utopia (**2500**/2000)."

"But neither of those cards is powerful enough to deal with a JD backed by honest. All Utopia does is negate attacks and it doesn't even have materials to use that effect since it's been special summoned like that." Crag was confused once more by the Utopia cards, and couldn't seem to think of a play that would get him over this.

"I guess if you can't see it yet, I'll just have to show you." Tanner's voice rang with certainty and he pointed up to the sky, holding aloft a card. "I activate the mighty spell card Rank-Up Magic Astral Force!"

"You seemed to dread these cards earlier and certainly for good reason. Now in the stead of Utopia, I summon from my extra deck Number 39: Beyond the Hope (**3000**/2500)! When this card is XYZ summoned, all of your monsters attack points become 0 (3000 to **0**). But that's not all; I'm going to show you an ultimate monster."

"By discarding one 'Rank-Up-Magic' card I have in my hand, and having a 'Utopia' monster on the field, I can special summon from the extra deck Number 99: Utopia Dragun (**4000**/2000). I'm about to take care of the potential issue of a third Necro-Gardna, too."

"You see, Utopia Dragun lets me special summon a 'Number' monster from the grave in defense position, with its effects negated. So welcome back once more Number 39: Utopia. I'm afraid there's one more monster in the Utopia collection I've yet to show you, though. When I have a plain old Utopia on the field, I can special summon over it Number C39: Utopia Ray in attack mode (**2500**/2000)."

"No… You'll have two monsters to take me out!" Crag exclaimed, taking a few steps back in disbelief. The tutor just let out a villainous sort of chuckle in response.

"Good to see you've been paying enough attention in your math courses. Now go, Utopia Ray, smite that dragon and give me ultimate victory. Paradise Slash!" The knight had slain the dragon, and Crag didn't even bother with Honest or anything else, knowing the other two monsters would soon take him out regardless.

One last dull beep sounded from Crag's dual disk as his life hit 0, and in the same vein, he hit the ground, hunched over on all fours and looking at his Judgment Dragon Card.

"I…I lost? But how, Judgment Dragon is unstoppable." Crag stammered. Tanner came over to him and looked down at him.

"No matter how strong your main deck is, no matter how consistent, at some point your extra deck will make or break you, and when it does, you'll lose. I hope this duel was a learning experience for you. Now if you'll excuse me I need to go get my extra credit from Mr. Green." Tanner said no more and walked away. Topher and Max ran down the stairs to Crag and helped him up.

"Don't take what he said personally." But Crag was having none of it. He went off to the trio's room and shut the door forcefully. Topher and Max both looked at each other.

"We need some way to cheer him up." Topher said. Max scratched his chin thoughtfully and raised a finger.

"Follow me, I have an idea." Max said and the two went off.

Crag sat in the room for a long time. The sun by now had gone down and neither Topher nor Max had come to check up on him. He took his deck out and looked over the array of monsters. Lumina, Jain, Celestica, Judgment Dragon, he knew his monsters were strong, but now he was just feeling too weak to use them.

_These cards don't deserve someone like me who can't use them well enough. If I fail this class I'll probably get kicked out of school. Ugh, I'm not fooling anyone, I'm passing everything by the skin of my teeth anyways._

A door opening broke Crag out of his self-deprecating train of thought. Something flat and wrapped in plastic hit him square in the face and dropped on his bed. Looking down he saw that it was a pack of cards from the school's card shop.

"I don't think it was such a good idea to throw the packs Topher."

"Less talky more throwy." Another pack hit Crag and then another, and then another. More and more packs where thrown as the two other Slifer boys entered the room. Both were carrying an armful of card packs.

"Guys stop it!" Crag protested but Topher just kept throwing them until he ran out.

"Well Crag, hopefully it's hit you by now."

"Do you have to take everything to literally, Topher?" Topher looked at Max confused.

"Not really, you just don't get too many opportunities to say stuff like that sincerely." Max just rolled his eyes and dumped his own load on the bed. Crag looked down at all the packs, tremendously confused.

"I don't understand, what's all this about, guys?" Topher beamed at him.

"Well since you don't have an extra deck the best place to start is with card packs. Hopefully you will pull something useful and if not there is always trading. So let's get to work." He said and tore open one of his packs. Max looked up at Crag.

"He spent his whole month's savings of duel points to get those packs." Max commented incredulously.

"Not all of them…only half of them." The trio burst out into laughter for seemingly no reason and opened packs, looked over cards, and made trades among themselves into the dim hours of the morning.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Shadows Overhead

A week has passed since Crag had his first lesson with Tanner. Over the week Crag worked on his extra deck, combining the cards that he got from the boosters and trades form around the campus. After mustering the most of what he could find, Crag managed to earn a solid C minus on his latest test.

Topher was still doing as well as he expected to be doing, passing his courses with ease. The most stress he every really took was trying to find a new opponent for a duel every day. The school was big, but he found himself treading over others sometimes. Max on the other hand was a wreck. Something was setting him on edge recently and he wouldn't open up to the other Slifers.

One particular day even the worst of the slackers was quite attentive in class. It was a subject most of the students were entirely unfamiliar with. The professor herself was entirely enrapt within the subject to boot.

"You see students; Gemini, Union, Toons, and Spirit monsters bring a new life to the game. I suppose they're not quite the same, but LV or 'Level' monsters are often put in the same sort of category." A couple snickers broke the attentive silence and background noise of pen on paper at the mention of Level monsters.

"These monsters are special because unlike the aforementioned monster types, Level monsters transcend their limits naturally, without being entirely reliant on supporting spells and traps, though they certainly help. During the End Phase or Standby Phase after fulfilling a condition, they Special Summon the next level of that same creature, with a more powerful effect."

The lecture continued for quite some time before the professor closed her book and looked around to her students, who held quizzical expressions. One would be hard-pressed to find a time when the professor _didn't _have her book open for teaching.

She pointed towards Max and another student. "You there Maximus, I want you to duel Kristina there to show everyone precisely how level monsters work. Follow me, students, and we'll be taking a little field trip to the Obelisk Blue dueling arena." Everyone started filing out of the class and headed down towards the Arena. Max froze up a bit at the call-out, not moving or making comment as his opponent passed him.

"Max, you ok man? Snap out of it!" Topher slapped Max on the back and he shook himself out of whatever stupor he was in.

"Huh? Oh yeah, nothing's wrong. Let's get going." Max said and hurried out of the classroom, following the crowd. Topher looked over to Crag and the two just shrugged and followed the crowd themselves.

The freshman class took a trek to the Obelisk arena and arrived to commotion. It would seem the arena was in use by an Obelisk Blue class. Two of the Blue students were in a heated duel that had just reached its climax. The students let out cheers as the losers life points dropped down to 0. The victor, an Obelisk Blue girl, was leaving the stadium when she was swarmed by some very earnest freshmen.

"What's your secret?"

"How did you get this good?"

"What type of deck was that?"

On and on questions were thrown at her while she pushed her way through the crowd. It didn't take long for her to get tired of this, though. After taking a look, she saw the professors were too distracted talking to each other to take care of the situation. She cleared her throat rather loudly and the crowd about her quieted themselves.

"I'd appreciate some space."

The crowd backed away and cleared a path for her, except for Max, Topher, and a terribly lost looking Crag. As her eyes crossed Max's, a faint smile developed on her face.

"It's been a while… baby brother." She said. Part of the crowd broke out into whispers. Max seemed to freeze up again and started stuttering.

"It's…n-nice to see you too sis." He choked out.

_Sis?_ Topher thought to himself. _I guess the resemblance is definitely there the more I look at her. _The young woman had the same thick black hair as Max did, swept over to the left, partially covering one eye and extending down to her shoulders. Her figure itself was pretty good, too, Topher noted. The girl seemed to take a sweeping look over the other two with Max and then just did a small nod, resuming her very neutral expression.

"Likewise. Now who are you two?" Topher and Crag extended their hands towards the girl.

"The name's Christopher, but please, call me Topher."

"Just call me Crag." The girl held a palm facing out, as if a hand-shake wasn't needed.

"And my name is Fiora. I can't help but notice the red coat you've got on there, baby bro."

Max visibly flinched. "Yeah, I'm in S-Slifer Red."

"I thought it was just an error in the transcript, but hey, at least you made it in. Most don't make it past entrance exams. Oh, and what is your class doing here in the Obelisk arena, by the way?"

Crag stepped up and placed an arm around Max. "This guy here is going to be in a duel!" Fiora only raised a brow at the information and her small smile returned.

"It's been a while since I saw you duel, Maxy, hasn't it? I guess I'll have to see if you have improved since I was home for summer." Fiora took a spot among the stands and the fresh-men kept their distance from her. Even Crag and Topher sat a whole seat away from her.

"Ms. Tristar, what are you doing? Your next class with me will be beginning shortly." A tall, slender man with a more prestigious version of the Obelisk Blue uniform tucked into neatly pressed black slacks and a long blue overcoat somehow managed to show up before the front of the stands without Topher or Crag noticing.

"Professor Kingsly, my apologies. I'll be spectating this duel. My baby brother is dueling and this will be the first chance I get to see how much he's developed."

"Hrm. I suppose I can make an exception for you." The professor ran a finger through his curly mustache and turned about face, rounding up the other students and sending them off. "Very well, Tristar, you're dismissed."

Topher leaned over to Crag and whispered. "D-Did a professor just take an order from a student? Did she just get out of a class by saying she wanted to!?"

Crag did the same. "I think she did. I heard a rumor about her once; they say she's so high up on the student food chain that even _professors _are afraid of her dueling skills."

"No way… So this is what Max was talking about when he said he came from a family with a lot of expectations. No wonder being in Red bummed him out for a while."

"A while?" Crag looked back to Topher like he was insane. "He was still moping about at the start of the month!"

Max gulped and took his spot in the dueling arena opposite Kristina. Topher immediately picked up that something was wrong with Max. Mainly from the amount of sweat that was coming off of his forehead.

"Do you think something is wrong with Max?" Topher asked.

"Yeah now that you mention it he doesn't seem as confident as he normally does. I wonder what's wrong." Fiora overheard their conversation and let out a little sigh. _Those two don't know the half of it._

_First I have to duel in front of the whole class and now _my sister_ shows up? I should just forfeit now._ Max looked back up at the stands and saw Topher and Crag giving him thumbs up, but above them Fiora loomed over. Max didn't see it but he felt her shadow over him. He shook his head and steeled himself. _No, I can't give up! I _will_ prove to my sister that I am a good duelist!_

"So you ready to duel or what? 'Cause I am fired up over here!" Max tried to sound confident when talking to his opponent but she wasn't fooled. Kristina flashed her duel disk at Max.

"If you say so. It's time to show you the next Level of dueling!" Both the duel disks flared to life with a whir and a beep. The ticker on the duel disk that tracked their life points rose to 4000.

"Let's Duel!"

"Since you're so fired up, I'll give you something to fight! I go first, draw!" Kristina drew her starting hand and looked over it before simply setting a monster in face-down mode. The rectangular shadow stretched across the field and she pointed at Max.

"Your move, then."

"R-Right! I'll draw." Max's hand was shaking as he looked over the cards in his hand. "I'll summon out Blackwing – Zephyros the Elite in attack mode (**1600**/1000). And… I'll have it attack your face-down."

"Blackwings, eh? The way you're acting, they don't really fit you. Anyways, your attack isn't going to work because I set Mystic Swordsman LV4! (1900/**1600**) He's a monster that has to be set face-down in order to be summoned, you see."

As Zephyros dove down on the kneeling knight, the Swordsman raised its sword and the two traded blows, both parting ways unharmed.

"Ugh, whatever. I end my turn there." Max's eyes narrowed, seemingly frustrated despite it only being his first turn.

"What the heck is up with him?" Topher frowned, concerned for his friend.

"Come on you two, you really can't figure this out? I'm here." Fiora commented, not taking her eyes off of Max. "Hasn't he told you two _anything_ about me?"

"Umm… No. The only thing he's ever said about family is that he comes from a great family of duelists." Crag scratched the back of his head, trying to think of anything else he might have said.

"Then I suppose there's something you should know. The Tristar line has always been host to some of the most prestigious duelists in the professional world. On top of this, Maxy there has never been able to beat me in a duel. It's no wonder he feels a lot of pressure right now." Fiora just shook her head and crossed her legs.

"Tristar, Tristar… Oh, that's it! I knew I recognized the name from somewhere. Does that mean you're the daughter of _the _Tredwin Tristar? One of the top five pros in the league right now?" Topher's hands became fists and positioned themselves under his chin. "It's an honor to meet someone from the same line!"

Fiora just shrugged it off. "Don't make a big deal of it. Right now you should be focused on supporting your friend."

"Oh yeah…" Topher and Crag turned their attentions back to the duel to see Kristina taking her turn.

"Hmm… I'll start by setting another monster face-down, and next, I'll switch my Swordsman to attack mode (**1900**/1600). Then, he'll strike down your Zephyros with one blow. Go, Mystic Slash!" The swordsman held aloft his blade before bringing it down in front of him and turned around. Max's birdman looked confused before realizing a yellow line cut through his torso and he exploded into glowing fragments.

"Teehee! Now it's time to show off the coolest part of my cards. When Mystic Swordsman LV4 cuts down an opponent's monster, during that same End Phase, it levels up to Mystic Swordsman LV6 (**2300**/1700). So appear before me, my stronger knight!" There was a bright white light before the Swordsman turned back to face its opponent, wielding long, glowing crescent blades now.

"That'll end my turn. So, what do you think of my monsters?" Kristina said, taking up a proud pose with a smile, eager to show off more of her deck.

"They're not bad at all, but I'm afraid I've gotta top 'em." Max responded, taking his next card, seemingly calmed down at least a little now. _Oh I'm afraid alright. How am I supposed to show I've changed with a hand like this? Wait… I'll use Breeze to... yeah!_

"Alright, things will take off from here because I normal summon out Blackwing – Breeze the Zephyr (1100/300). Breeze's wings will beat back a hasty retreat back to my hand though, once I activate the Zephyros the Elite's effect in my graveyard. By returning one face-up card on my side of the field and paying 400 life points, I can special summon it from the grave, so I'll do just that. Welcome back my Elite (**1600**/1000)!"

"Next, I'll use the effect of Blackwing – Bora the Spear in my hand to special summon it. When there's another 'Blackwing' monster out on my field, he can come out to support it. This will let me activate the spell card—"

"I hate to interrupt, but could you just avoid saying 'Blackwing' blank the blank? I already know what you're playing; you're just kinda wasting time by saying it out loud like that." Kristina interrupted Max mid-play.

"What? Are you kidding me? I'll stop doing that if you stop saying 'Level' 4 or whatever every time." Max snapped back.

"Why would I do that? You _need_ to know what level it is. Do you just want me to say Mystic Swordsman 6? That sounds stupid." Kristina put her hands on her hips.

"You know what else is stupid then? Trying to get someone to stop saying the name of their archetype. So stop being stupid and just let me play!" Max raised his voice.

Fiora sighed again in the stands. _He's certainly still _acting _like a child. And he's already made his first mistake. That play was entirely unoptimized. Whatever he's doing, his field will suffer. _She turned her head to take a glance at her brother's newfound friends and saw that both were instinctively rubbing the back of their heads, feeling embarrassed for Max most likely. _I suppose I'll stay a while longer to see how this unfolds._

"Anyways," Max continued. "I'm activating the spell card Raptor Wing Strike, by returning my _Blackwing_ – Zephyros to deck, I can add any _'Blackwing'_ monster from deck to hand. And I choose to add _Blackwing_ – Kalut the Moon Shadow. Next, I'll have my _Blackwing_ – Bora attack your Mystic Swordsman Level 6. Spiral Drill!"

"What are you trying to do? My Swordsman is a whole 600 points higher than your monster."

"Maybe for now, but that's why I added Kalut the Moon Shadow to hand. By activating its effect, I discard it from hand in order to give 1400 attack points to my monster until the end of the turn. So let's keep going, Bora!" A shadow covered the field, enveloping both monsters before moon-light poured in from above to reveal that Bora had just cut down the Mystic Swordsman and flew back to its own side of the field, taking Kristina down to 3200 life points, just below Max's 3300 life points.

"I'll set one card face down to end my turn. Now how do you like _my _monsters?" Max asked; mocking the pose Kristina had taken up earlier when asking the same question.

"I think your birds are in need of a serious clipping." Kristina commented without a joking tone. "Now's as good a time as ever, too. I normal summon the Armed Dragon LV 3 (**1200**/900). Normally he needs to stick around for a turn to level up, but with the assistance of my 'Level Up!' spell card, I can skip straight to the next highest stage! Please join me in welcoming the Armed Dragon LV5 (**2400**/1700)."

The cute orange dragon with armored plating and spikes here and there was now enshrouded in a cloud of smoke, and once it parted, supposedly the same dragon appeared, as a much larger red one with spikes and drills everywhere; literally it had three rows of steel, teeth-like spikes running down its stomach. Its new appearance made it pretty hard to believe it was the same monster. All the same, admiring comments could be heard from the students spectating.

"Aww, they really like you, Spiky!" The dragon blushed a little and scratched the back of its head. "I know! Come on, let's show them a trick, roll over!" With a mighty thud, the dragon actually flopped to the ground and rolled onto its back for her, to everyone's surprise. It was also to everyone's enjoyment as laughter and cheering erupted from the crowd.

"Ack! Will you take this duel seriously, come on!" Max lost his grip and pointed an accusatory finger at his opponent. Topher could swear he saw steam actually leave his nose. "You're supposed to be dueling, not trying to pretend your monster is your dog back at home!"

"Aww, you're no fun. Well then, I suppose I'll just have to show you a real trick. Spiky here has a special ability. By discarding a monster from my hand with more attack than a monster you have, I can destroy it! I'm discarding another Armed Dragon LV5 with 2400 attack points to destroy your monster with just 1700. Armed Ring attack, go!"

The spikes on the dragon's stomach began to rotate rapidly before launching out of it and slamming into Bora the Spear, tearing it into four pieces before leaving the field. The ring of spikes returned into place neatly with a satisfying thump.

"And that's not all. Armed Dragon can still attack you directly, so go, Armed Pulverizer!" The dragon let out a mighty roar and missiles launched from its knee-caps, spiraling through the air before impacting near Max and blowing him onto his back.

"Gaaah! Missiles in its knees, are you kidding me?"

"What can I say? My dragon's armed to the teeth, teehee."

Max rose back and narrowed his eyes, not appreciating the joke. "My turn then. I guess I'll just have to take your dragon to the dentist, then. Eh? Eh?"

Two guys from the crowd rose up and yelled at Max. "Boo! You suck!" "Yeah, you can't be so mean to her like that, especially when your jokes aren't even half as good." This time it was Kristina herself left blushing.

_When the hell did I become a villain here? The last thing I need are some white knights in the crowd heckling me right now. _Max's thoughts were interrupted though as Crag spoke up. "Ignore them, Max, I laughed at it!"

"Yeah, now focus on taking down that oversized… thing!" Topher attempted to join in on the support.

"Yeah, thanks you guys." Max chuckled and took a second look over his hand. "I guess I can't do it this turn, but in the mean time I'll just set one monster face down… That'll be the end of my turn."

"Max, defense alone isn't enough to best a monster that can constantly level up. Take initiative for once and show everyone your own power! You may be down, but you're not out." Max's eyes widened once he realized this encouragement had actually come from his sister. _Woah… I really do have support if she's giving me advice._

"Too bad that's all his birds seem to be able to do. It's my turn again, and I think it's time I showed you a couple of other tricks." Kristina developed a rather mischievous smile before revealing a spell card in her hand, followed by five dice rolling onto the field and all landing on one, the dice creating a peculiar symbol. "I activate the spell card Level Modulation. This spell card, at the cost of letting you draw two more cards of your own, lets me special summon back a 'LV' card from the grave, but it can't attack or activate its effect this turn."

"It's not too bad if it means I get to have two of my favorite little dragons, Armed Dragon LV 5 (**2400**/1700)!" And so another appeared on the field right next to the other, both of which gave each other a high five. "Aww, they're just so adorable! But remember, I haven't normal summoned this turn. I'll normal summon Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV4 (**1600**/1000). Now for the Battle Phase."

"Horus LV4, attack his face-down monster!" The metallic dragon chick opened its small beak to let out a large black fireball aimed at the face-down monster, consequently flipping face up the same Blackwing – Zephyros (1600/**1000**) that Max had returned to his hand earlier. The bird caught flame and burnt to ashes quickly.

"Thanks." Max said. "I activate the trap card Black Wing Revenge! When a winged-beast monster of mine is destroyed by battle, I can special summon two 'Blackwing Crest Tokens.' (0/**800**) I knew that Armed Dragon's effect only works on face-up monsters, so now these little birdies will help defend me for this turn."

"Hmph. You've managed to stall another turn, but you won't be able to keep this up for long. Armed Dragon LV5, attack one of his tokens. Armed Pulverizer!" The token disappeared and the other one left looked terrified. "My turns not over, either. You must be looking for a monster to stay on the field so you can tribute it, but that just won't happen. I activate Armed Dragon LV5's effect, by discarding the Allure Queen LV7 (1500 ATK) I have in my hand, your token can say goodnight."

"Your field's empty, the walls you put up are weak, and the monsters you're staring down are only getting stronger, why don't you just give up already?" Kristina asked with a smug grin, Max's stance faltered.

_Dang… maybe she's right. Sis always said to never waste the opponents time if they've already beaten you… But Topher told me to keep trying until the last card's drawn. I can't just surrender here anyways, I've got to win and show her how much I've changed!_

"No dice. I'm going to show up your monsters and your 'next level' of dueling right here this turn. Draw!" _Nice! _"I'll start this turn by activating the continuous spell card, Black Whirlwind. This spell card allows me to add any 'Blackwing' monster from my deck to hand that has less attack points than a normal summoned 'Blackwing' monster. I've got a pretty big array to choose from, too, with the fearsome Blackwing – Sirocco the Dawn (**2000**/900) being summoned out."

"Hang on a sec, that's a level 5 monster, why'd your Duel Disk let you summon it?" Kristina tilted her head.

"If you control a monster, and I control none, I can normal summon this monster from my hand without any tributes. Now I'll take advantage of Black Whirlwind to add Blackwing – Blizzard the Far North (1300/0) to my hand."

"Woah, is he really going for that?" Crag questioned in the stands.

"Yeah, he really wants to impress you it looks like." Topher offered, nodding to Fiora. She leaned in and narrowed her eyes, trying to piece together precisely what plan her brother could have.

_Going for what, exactly? A synchro summon? No, he has way more planned. I can tell by that stupid grin he always has when he thinks he's going to win. He's been building his grave for a while now and fishing for a monster he could keep… Now how well have you thought this through, baby brother?_

"Now then, I activate the spell card, Double Summon! This card does precisely as advertised, it lets me normal summon twice this turn. And I'll be taking advantage of that by normal summoning the Blizzard I just added to hand. I'll use both its effect and Black Whirlwind's now. First, I add Blackwing – Oroshi the Squall (400/600) and now Blizzard's effect, which allows me to special summon from grave any level 4 or lower Blackwing Monster, but in this case I'm choosing to bring back Bora the Spear (**1700**/800)."

"This is all pretty impressive, right?" He glanced in his sister's direction to see if she was watching, and his grin faltered for a bit when he realized she didn't look impressed in the slightest. "W-Well, there's more to come! From my hand, I special summon both Oroshi the Squall and Gale the Whirlwind in defense mode. They have effects just like Bora the Spear's, and come to the aid of their fellow feathered friends."

"This is all well and good, guy, but unless you can somehow bring out four monsters, three of which would need higher attack than 2400 and 2300, my field isn't going anywhere. And of course, there's always my Armed Dragon's effect." Kristina seemed interested, but not really feeling threatened, judging by her relaxed stance.

"I think to help clear things up for the audience here, I'll go through a roll call." As Max began to list off the names of the cards he had, they each grunted in affirmation. "In space one of this plethora of Blackwings we have a tuner, Oroshi the Squall (400/**600** lvl 1). In space two, Sirocco the Dawn (**2000**/900 lvl 5). In space three, a tuner, Blizzard the Far North (**1300**/0 lvl 2). In space four, Bora the Spear (**1700**/800 lvl 4). And last but not least, our third tuner is in space five, Gale the Whirwind (**1300**/400 lvl 3)!"

Max took a deep breath to collect himself, the audience seemed enticed by the display being put forth.

"There's no way Max can lose, think of all the monsters he can get out now!" Topher exclaimed, incredulous at the play.

"Maybe." Was the only comment Fiora had to offer, which was met by confused noises from both of Max's friends. _You can win or at the very least, destroy her entire field. Whether you win or not depends on that face-down and your ability to see the potential in these cards. Show me your soaring spirit, Max._

"Before I get too far ahead of myself, I activate Gale the Whirlwind's special ability, which halves the attack and defense of one of your monsters until the end of the turn, and I'm choosing your first Armed Dragon Level 5 (2400-**1200**). Now, I tune Blizzard the Far North with Sirocco the Dawn to special summon Blackwing – Armor Master (**2500**/1500)! And by tuning Gale the Whirlwind with Bora the Spear, I can special summon a second Armor Master." After appearing, both of the monsters gave each other a high five as well, mimicking the Armed Dragons from earlier.

"Both of them will attack your Armed Dragons and finally wipe them off the field, dealing 1500 points of damage. Go you two, Wedge Dive attack!" The two monsters launched into the sky and dove, spiraling one over the other until dividing and landing a V-shaped strike on both of the Armed Dragons.

As soon as Max declared the attack, Fiora stood up and began to walk calmly away from the stands, Topher stopped her as she was about to pass him. "Hang on, where are you going? Your bro's putting her in a tight spot now. Armor Master can't be destroyed by battle, and with both the dragons gone, there's no way she can take advantage of that effect either."

A third sigh left Fiora's mouth. "Perhaps to an untrained freshman, this may seem like a beneficial situation. Consider a few things for me, Christopher. What is Oroshi the Squall's effect?"

"Uhh… when you tune using it, you can change the battle position of a monster on the field?" Topher managed to get out after a while.

"Precisely. He should have tuned Oroshi with Bora in order to create Gram the Shining Star. Gram can bring back a level 4 or lower monster from the grave, which could have included another Oroshi. Using Oroshi's effect, he could have changed the face-down monster's position. Tune again with the two and Max would have created Armed Wing, which deals piercing damage."

"If the face-down monster proves to have a lower defense than attack? Oroshi's effect can be used once again. That monster has been in defense mode for so many turns when it could have easily directly attacked, so it's unlikely it would have higher attack points regardless." Fiora continued to dismiss Max's play as if it were shameful and worthless.

"Okay, sure, but what about the rest of her monsters? Then he'd lose the safety net he made to avoid destruction by—" Crag spoke up, not seeing how this would be a better play.

"I wasn't finished." Fiora interrupted. "Had he then tuned Blizzard the Far North with Sirocco the Dawn, he could have still had his Armor Master. Not only would this grant immunity to destruction by battle, but it would have created a stronger monster. And finally if the face-down monster and an attack from Armor Master proved to not be enough after first flipping up the face-down defense position monster? Then his left-over Gale the Whirlwind can attack the weakened Armed Dragon Level 5 and clear the field."

Both Topher and Crag were in stunned silence, and both had the same thought. _Is… is this the kind of skill you need to be able to make it to the top?_ Crag audibly gulped.

"You must have thought of that in thirty seconds… how the heck?"

"Please. It took me ten seconds when I looked at his complete field. It should have taken him even less time considering that isn't even my deck." Fiora had yet to turn around and actually make any comments to the two friends' faces, apparently finding it to not be worth the effort. After a good thirty seconds she spoke again. "Do you have a problem with me leaving now?"

"But… he hasn't lost yet. So you shouldn't leave." Topher managed to get out, still dazed.

"As far as I'm concerned, he's already lost. This girl still has two monsters left on the field, and will have two cards in hand next turn. The likelihood of an inability to do something about the situation is slim. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Max has no cards in hand and no probability of reversing the situation based off of one card."

"Not only has she been holding onto a card since the start of the game, it won't take more than a single spell card to change the fate of a monster that can still be destroyed by effects. Contact me if I'm wrong, but I won't waste my time. Good bye." Fiora waited no longer to take her leave, and it left Topher furious. Not too many others seemed to notice her leaving as the duel was reaching a climax.

After that tense minute of conversation, looking back to the field, the girl got back up after the smoke had cleared and just grinned from ear to ear. "Finally! I've been waiting for you to clear out your hand. I didn't really have a guarantee you wouldn't have another one of those Kalut birdies, and now all of that worry has evaporated, so have your chances of winning." And so too, did Max's confidence evaporate.

"First, allow me to show you the monster you've been ignoring for oh-so many turns. The Treeborn Frog (**100**/100)!" The formerly face down monster was revealed to be a small yellow frog with black stripes and a pair of wings holding it aloft. "Sorry, little guy, but you're going to help me make way for a bigger monster. I activate the spell card Enemy Controller! This controller can do one of two things, but in this case, I'm going to tribute my Treeborn Frog in order to take control of one of your Armor Masters."

"Y-Yeah, but that only lasts until the end of the turn. And! A-Armor Master can't be destroyed by battle." Max stammered out, any semblance of nerve or bravado he might have had before was completely gone.

"I guess it's kinda lucky, but I picked up one of these things from a booster pack, so I know all about that _and _the other part of its effect." Kristina frowned a little, disappointed that her opponent had lost his nerve so easily.

_No way… _Topher couldn't let Fiora's words go now. _I can't believe it. She was right. Not only would Max have dealt enough damage to win that turn, Kristina had a spell card to turn the situation around that she'd been holding onto the whole time. How the hell did Fiora know that?_

"I'm afraid this is it." Kristina continued. "Armor Master will attack your other Armor Master. I know that neither of them is destroyed, but I can leave a wedge counter in your monster. When removed, they take any monster with a counter's attack and defense points down to 0."

The two Armor Masters reluctantly crossed talons, the one on Max's side howled as a talon seemingly broke off and firmly nailed itself to the monster's chest. A red aura developed around the Armor Master and it took a knee as its attack points dropped from 2500 to 0.

"Sorry, but this is game. Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV6, attack that Armor Master with Pitch-Dark Fire Volley!"

The entire world turned to slow-motion. Max's eyes widened as he saw the stream of black fire approaching his weakened monster and he turned to the stands to see his sister's reaction, feeling a burning mark of shame on himself. Only to make the situation worse he saw that his sister hadn't even stuck around. _No… she knew I'd lose. Dammit, I'll never be good enough! Never! _

The life point ticker gave a dull beep and in his frustration, Max barely understood what had just happened. The teacher stepped onto the dueling platform itself and clapped enthusiastically, alongside the rest of the crowd. Kristina took a graceful bow.

"Very well done you two; excellent show! Now I hope all you took into account the way Kristina used those monsters in the duel, it was important to consider her—" Before the teacher could finish her speech Max bolted out of the arena and the applause was cut short.

"Max!" Topher and Crag cried out and chased after their friend. Most seemed concerned but the teacher waved them down.

"Calm down everyone. Max will be ok, everyone just responds to loss in a different way." She frowned, hoping this cover for him would be enough.

Max stood outside of the Slifer dorm with a backpack slung over his shoulder.

_I never thought I'd be dropping out of school…Heck, I thought I'd be put into Ra straight away. I'll miss the guys but this is for the best. I can't show my face to Fiora after that shameful display._

"And just where do you think you're going!?" Max looked up from his self-pity induced thoughts and saw Topher running along from the forest path before he stopped and doubled over, hands on his knees. Crag wasn't far behind, panting heavily as well. Max only looked at his friends with sorrow.

"I don't belong here with you guys. I don't have the skill." Max said, deadpan. Topher glared up at him.

"I call bull on that. You have the skill it's just that something is throwing you off your game." Topher retorted. Max balled his fists and tried to walk past, but Topher put up his arms and blocked him.

"And in order to help you get past that, you're gonna duel me!"


	6. UPDATE

Due to real life, we will be putting the story on hiatus for a while so that we can finish up with school. Thank you for understanding and we will be back with chapter 6 as soon as we can.


End file.
